Thec LuLac Edition #5,029, November 21st, 2023

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our Maybe I'm Amazed" logo.

“THE WIZARD OF OZ” EDITION

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that while the film was sufficiently popular at the box office, it failed to make a profit for MGM until its 1949 re-release, earning only $3 million on a $2.7 million budget, making it MGM's most expensive production at the time.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. was an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that while it is a TV mainstay and one that was usually on TV the day before Thanksgiving om CBS when I was a kid, it didn’t air on TV until 1956. Now with cable, you can see it almost anywhere all the time.

MAYBE I’M, AMAZED…. that The Wizard of Oz is celebrated for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West overshadowed her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score. It was a big year for other movies that made winning a very competitive enterprise.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. that several actresses were reportedly considered for the part of Dorothy, including Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, at the time, the most prominent child star; Deanna Durbin, a relative newcomer, with a recognized operatic voice; and Judy Garland, the most experienced of the three. Officially, the decision to cast Garland was attributed to contractual issues.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. Buddy Ebsen was to play the Scarecrow. Bolger, however, longed to play the Scarecrow, as his childhood idol Fred Stone had done on stage in 1902; with that very performance, Stone had inspired him to become a vaudevillian in the first place. Now unhappy with his role as the Tin Man (reportedly claiming, "I'm not a tin performer; I'm fluid"), Bolger convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him in the part he so desired. Ebsen did not object; after going over the basics of the Scarecrow's distinctive gait with Bolger.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that none other than W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the title role of the Wizard (after Ed Wynn turned it down, considering the part "too small"), but the studio couldn't meet Fields' fee. Wallace Beery lobbied for the role, but the studio refused to spare him during the long shooting schedule. Instead, another contract player, Frank Morgan, was cast.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. that it took an extensive talent search to produce over a hundred little people to play Munchkins; this meant that most of the film's Oz sequences would have to already be shot before work on the Munchkinland sequence could begin. According to Munchkin actor Jerry Maren, the little people were each paid over $125 a week (equivalent to $2,600 today.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. but not really that of curse the WOO is a Thanksgiving staple because the message of “there’s no place like home” truly resonates on Turkey Day.